


All the Way Up

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-10 19:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12918900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: An alternate ending to the VKs' attempts to bring Mal home





	All the Way Up

**Author's Note:**

> a request from @sharkwithclassandass on tumblr

Blue fingernails clicking testily against the railing, cold and rusty.  Jay surprisingly stoic.  Carlos swiveling his head around and around, keeping an eye out for a flash of monochrome furs.  This wasn’t how Evie intended to spend her evening.

The waiting skewed her concept of time and made the minutes feel like hours. So hours (minutes) later, when footsteps descended down the steel stairwell, Evie let out a breath of relief like she’d been holding it in for a lifetime.  Until her ears picked up only one pair of footsteps, only two shoes coming their way.  
  
“…So?  Where’s Mal?” she all but demanded.  
  
Ben barely even held her gaze, his entire form carried defeat.  
  
“…She’s not coming back.”  
  
He shouldered past the stunned VKs, shuffling out into the streets of The Isle.  
  
“…What??” Evie blurted after him.  Ben just kept on walking.  "…I’ll talk to her.“  
  
The gang had been clever in creating their hideout back in the day, Carlos even going so far as to set up two-way communication so they could tell unsuspecting passersby to back the heck up when they wandered too close and have a good laugh at the frightened and surprised yelps that followed. Evie turned out the old horn Jay had once fished out from the trash behind his father’s store, her voice traveling up into the hideout.  
  
"M?  …Mal, it’s Evie.  Let me just talk to you for a second,” she pleaded.  "…Mal, come on.“  
  
It didn’t take long for Mal’s voice to come back, carrying a metallic echo from their sound system.  
  
"Go  _away_!!”  
  
Evie felt her heart drop.  Then Jay was right there, taking her by the arm.  
  
“Let’s give her a couple hours to cool off,” he said gently.  
  
Evie could barely get the sigh out, what with the tightness in her chest.  
  
Jay and Carlos were already walking, down the alleyway after Ben.  Evie’s feet urged her to move.  One step, then another.  Just listen to Jay, follow after the boys, leave Mal alone for a little bit.  Let her clear her head.  
  
Her feet sure must have been surprised when the boys were disappearing around the corner and Evie herself was scaling the ladder to the top of the hideout.

It was a strange, surreal feeling, being back in that place all those months later. The sights of her familiar second home were now strikingly foreign and unfamiliar despite remaining utterly untouched since they left for Auradon. Every sight, except for one.  Mal, in front of the wall, so engrossed in her spray painting she didn’t even hear Evie coming down the four metal steps.  
  
“…You couldn’t even say goodbye?” Evie’s voice held laughter, sadness, and a hint of anger all at once.  
  
Mal whirled around so fast, eyes wide, reminiscent of a frightened child.  
  
“…Evie…” she actually trembled as she spoke her name, as if she were seeing a ghost, and not her best friend.  
  
“I  _really_ didn’t merit any kind of goodbye,” Evie said again, not so much a question as a statement of disbelief.  
  
Mal’s shoulders dropped, her whole body seemed tugged down heavily by gravity.  
  
“…The whole ‘dramatic gesture’ thing didn’t exactly leave the time to stop and say goodbye,” she answered almost defeatedly.  
  
“Dramatic gesture,” Evie repeated, entirely unamused.  "Yeah, I guess you’d know all about that.“  
  
She took a crumpled piece of paper out of her jacket pocket, unfolding it before turning it out to show Mal; never taking her eyes off of her.  It was the note, a hastily scrawled "Evie, I am so sorry” written in Evie’s signature blue.  
  
Mal shrugged, glancing off to the side.  
  
“You know me,” she muttered.  
  
“And you know me.  You should’ve known I would come after you…Mal, talk to me.  What’s happened?”  
  
Mal stayed silent, her discomfort with the situation physically showing in the way she failed to carry herself.  Evie’s eyes hardened.  
  
“If I don’t deserve a goodbye, then I at least deserve an explanation as to why you’re about to make me let go of my best friend forever.”  
  
Mal slowly shook her head.  Back and forth, back and forth.  
  
“…I can’t talk about it, Evie,” she quietly said.  
  
“'You can’t talk about it’?” Evie repeated.  "What is that supposed to mean, Mal??“  
  
”…E, please.  Don’t worry about me. Just go back to Auradon.“  
  
"No!” Evie snapped, crumbling up Mal’s note once more in her fist.  
  
“I don’t belong there!  I am not an Auradon girl, Evie!  I can’t deal with the Goodness 101, and the rules, and the etiquette, how to hold the cups and the forks, even the right way to walk down the stairs!  Did you know that, E?  Did you know there’s wrong ways to walk down the stairs according to the royal rulebook??  This is  _so_  not me!”  
  
“So…what?  You thought running away was the answer?  That leaving me…and Ben, and Jay and Carlos was the way to go?”  
  
As if it was through no will of her own, Mal left the cover of the wall and stepped closer to Evie, setting the forgotten can of spray paint on the floor.  
  
“…I don’t know what to say, E.”  
  
There was no sparkle in Evie’s eyes.  No light.  Mal had never, ever seen such coldness in them before.  She didn’t even think Evie and her warmth were even  _capable_  of that kind of coldness.  
  
“You are unbelievable,” Evie threw Mal’s note onto the floor.  "I come back to The Isle, of all places, for you—"  
  
“I didn’t ask you to,” Mal desperately pointed out, feeling Evie’s emotions rise like a heat in the air.  
  
“You didn’t have to!” Evie yelled.  "I would do  _anything_  for you, Mal.  But I guess anything means nothing to you.“  
  
Mal couldn’t remember the last time she saw Evie like this.  She didn’t know if she’d ever seen Evie like this.  
  
"E, how can you say that?”  
  
“How can you do  _this_?  Drop all of us without a word and come back to the place we all fought so hard to escape even when we didn’t know we were fighting?”  
  
There was something about those eyes that was drawing Mal in, bringing her closer across the room and closer to Evie.  
  
“You don’t know how hard it’s been for me,” Mal said.  
  
“You haven’t told me how hard it’s been for you!  Am I just supposed to magically know what’s going on with you??”  
  
Despite the situation, Mal laughed, albeit sadly.  
  
“How can you, when I don’t even know what’s going on with me?”  
  
Evie wasn’t moved.  
  
“I can’t believe that after everything we’ve been through together…you would just leave like this.”  
  
“…E, please try to understand, it’s not that you don’t mean anything to me, it’s just—”  
  
“Forget it,” Evie turned on her heels, heading back the way she came and widening the space between them.  
  
“Evie!” Mal didn’t even hesitate in starting after her.  
  
“I said forget it, M.  If this is where you want to be, then I won’t stop you.  Whatever makes you happy.  That’s all I care about.”  
  
“E!”  
  
Evie made short work of the metal steps, getting to the stained glass window before Mal caught her by the arm and whirled her around.  
  
“Evie, please don’t go like this,” Mal’s eyes were wide with innocence, with some small shine of fear at the thought of things between them being left on these terms.  
  
“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” Evie harshly pointed out.  
  
Those eyes…  
  
The stiffening of her features.  The tightening of her jaw.  Now Mal understood why she didn’t recognize Evie’s anger.    
  
Because her anger was just the mask worn by her care and concern.  
  
An intriguing mask, one drawing Mal’s fingers up to trace the shape of that hardened jaw, those pouting lips.  Evie narrowed her eyes.  
  
“M, what are you—”  
  
Pouting lips were suddenly silenced by Mal’s own, igniting a spark that jumped between both of them and only crackled with intensity when Mal’s hand slid up to cup Evie’s cheek.  No carefulness, no hesitation, but such, such softness.  The angry mask slipped and fell when Mal broke away, touching her forehead to Evie’s and breathing softly.  
  
“…Mal,” Evie breathed back.  
  
She mirrored Mal, bringing her fingertips to her best friend’s lips, studying them with her touch.  
  
A second kiss, this one started by Evie; longer, more intense, more electricity.  
  
But when Mal went in for the third, Evie had pulled away, her hand on the center of Mal’s chest, right above her thudding heart.  
  
“…No, Mal.  I can’t do this,” she said.  
  
“…What?” Mal blurted, bewildered.  
  
“You don’t get to pretend to be happy with Ben, leave him for The Isle, and then suddenly decide that I’m the one you really want right before you take off forever.”  
  
“That isn’t what I'm—”  
  
“Goodbye, Mal.”  
  
Mal’s hands had found their way to Evie’s waist in the short time between the second kiss and the almost-third, and now Evie tugged herself free.  
  
“E, no,” Mal reached out for her again.  
  
“You made your choice,” Evie told her.  "And so did I, M.  Auradon is my choice.  The Isle is yours…so goodbye.“  
  
Back towards the door she went, leaving a stunned and confused Mal in her wake. Her lips still held a tingle as she made the climb back down to the street. She skipped the last rung with a little hop, Jay and Carlos and Ben long gone and out of sight.  They wouldn’t want to linger, they would’ve gone back to the limo to wait out their time on The Isle, so that’s where Evie knew she had to go too.  
  
She’d gotten her goodbye.  No explanation, but as she’d implied, it was either a goodbye or an explanation, and now that she had at least one under her belt, she was free to go. So Mal had just taken off.  So Mal had unresolved issues with Ben.  So Mal had fallen for the first guy to show her kindness and, surprise surprise, it was backfiring on her.  Mal made her choice.  Instead of staying and working through things, taking one step forward, she took two steps back.  And the VKs would never see her again.  
  
Whatever made her happy.  That’s what Evie said.  That was all she cared about.  Mal wasn’t happy in Auradon, news to Evie.  But if she thought she could be happy there on the island, alone, ruling over the place like her mother once had, alone, then…then…  
  
…Then for all of Evie’s smarts, she sure was being an idiot right about now.  
  
She was halfway down the alley when she turned and ran, barely even slowing down when she reached the ladder.  Mal was sitting on the floor of the hideout when Evie got back, elbows resting on her knees and holding her head in her hands.  This time, she heard Evie’s footsteps clear as day, looking up to find her there in front of the window.  The two didn’t even have a chance to exchange words before Evie was striding down the steps once more and crossing the room, dropping to her knees in front of Mal and throwing her arms around her.  
  
"If you’re staying, I’m staying too,” she said firmly, her voice muffled with her face buried in Mal’s neck.  
  
“…Evie?” Mal said her name like she was in a dream, questioning if she had really come back or not.  
  
“…But you don’t have to run, Mal,” Evie pulled away.  "If you don’t want the rules, and the etiquette, and the walking down the stairs, just say so.  You don’t need to leave.  …You don’t need to leave  _me_.“  
  
"I didn’t _want_ to leave you, E,” Mal’s eyes glistened as she gently took Evie’s face and kissed her, again and again.  "But I…I didn’t think…“  
  
Evie smiled.  
  
"Yes, you did.  You didn’t tell me goodbye because deep down you knew I’d never let you go.  Don’t stay here on The Isle, Mal.  We can fix things in Auradon, together.  I promise you.  You’ll never be alone.”  
  
Mal clutched Evie’s shoulders, gazing deeply into her eyes.  
  
“No matter where I go?” Mal asked.  
  
“No matter where you go.  It will always be you and me.  Now let’s get out of here, M.”  
  
Evie stood up, bringing Mal to her feet with her.  Mal slid her hands down to Evie’s, squeezing them tightly.  
  
“But Ben, the cotillion, being made a lady of the court—” she urgently listed.  
  
“It’s okay, Mal,” Evie brushed her fingers through a wave of purple.  "We’ll make everything work.“  
  
Finally, Mal allowed a smile to slowly but surely break through.  She leaned her head into the crook of Evie’s neck, turning just so to lay a kiss across her jawline.  
  
”…Never let me go,“ Mal whispered.  
  
"Never, Mal.  I’ll never let you go again.”


End file.
